Concerned about his child's college admission, a man in his 40s sits anxiously when a monk sits near him and asks why he's worried. The man tells the monk that he is worried about whether his child will get admission to the college. The monk smiles and asks him whether that college admission will make him happy. The adult says emphatically, "Yes". The monk asks, "Will your child also be happy if he gets admission to the desired college?" The man says, "Of course, yes. " The monk asks again, "But you too got admission to the college you wished for; then why are you worried?"
Probably none of us has an answer to this question. But, at the same time, we will simply say that the monk will not understand because he does not have a family. He does not know what responsibility means. Somebody will say that the monk does not understand fear and insecurity because he lives in a monastery, and he will not understand that the child will be fearful and insecure in this society if he does not get admission to a good college. Somebody will say that, apart from that theory, getting a good degree and a good job is the need of the day. Somebody will say that life is meant for excellence, and therefore the child, as well as his parents, should strive for the best college. Someone will say that unless the child is worried, he will not be motivated to work hard for the examination.
We have our own logic for how we live our lives. The monk has his own logic to justify, and so does a family man. One of the most surprising things I see in this world is that every now and then we realise our mistakes and the falsity of the logic we have carried for so long. Yet we are always so convinced of our point of view and never ever think that the stand we are taking today may prove wrong tomorrow. While talking and making a decision, we are highly convinced of our own viewpoint.
A child is made to believe since childhood that X & Y have given birth to him. The child does not know the reality of where he has come from. Probably he has no way of knowing that. The easiest option is to believe that X and Y have given birth to him. He repeats that belief in every conversation. His belief gets stronger. One day, he reads the Bhagavad Gita, in which Krishna says that everyone has been born from Him and will merge back into Him. The poor child gets confused. He knows X &Y but does not know Krishna. X & Y stand with him in difficult times, but he doesn't see Krishna standing with him. So, he brings a workable solution. "Let me keep living with the belief that X and Y have given birth, but at the same time, I will believe that Krishna exists and pray to Him".
Similarly, we believe in the existence of life beyond Earth, yet we can still fight for a piece of land here. We believe in life after death, but will do anything to get a few days of life, even in the ICU of the hospital. We believe in love, and yet can hurt the other to any extent to prove our point. We believe in God, and yet will be afraid and hopeless in difficult times. We believe in fairness, but will secretly become as unfair as possible to people around us. We believe in excellence, but we will waste hours scrolling on our mobile screens. We hold these beliefs without actually believing them, and we retain them either to maintain an image of "good human beings," since some of these beliefs are widely held in society, or to handle the "inner hollowness" that arises from the mindless pursuit of goals. But, actually, we love our self-image of being right, good, just, fair, and generous more than anything else.
That's why we may have thousands of noble beliefs about God, heaven, good, and right. None of these will help us. It's because our brain is basically very afraid. Out of fear and insecurity, it sets a target around some worldly thing. Self-image and social image of being good are actually very helpful in this society to ensure smooth survival. When people believe that we are good, we get support in difficult situations. When we believe that we are good, we feel motivated. We get that energy to do more and more good. Leaving this and examining these from a distance is actually very painful. It brings a lot of uncertainty. Even if the ship is sinking, a person cannot leave it until the last moment. It's difficult to jump into the sea without seeing an island, and the problem is that the island is not visible from the ship. So, we choose to sink with the ship.
An electron, highly convinced of being "an electron", gets disillusioned one day and feels disgusted that it is just orbiting the nucleus for so long. It decides to understand "self". It reads all the books and gets convinced that it knows it is pure energy. It returns to the nucleus and happily starts orbiting it again, believing it now knows reality. One day, as it worries about completing the revolution in time, the "monk" arrives and asks it about its worry, and upon hearing it, the monk smiles. The electron's ego gets hurt, and it decides to realise reality. It goes to the field to understand its nature. The field says that I am within you, and you are just a part of me. The electron says that it wants to experience reality. The field allows it, and the moment the electron experiences reality, there is no electron.
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